Marauder Days
by Jarjarrr
Summary: Our favorite heros- James, Sirius, Remus- and of course, let's not forget Peter- are having another year at Hogwarts school. But, there's some tension in the air. James is trying to get Lily to like him- and Sirius isn't liking it too much.
1. Lakeside Troubles

"Padfoot-"

"Shut up."

"But I-"

"_Shut up_."

"But I want to-"

"Peter, _SHUT UP!_" Screamed Sirius Black, glaring as the smaller boy who had been nagging him quickly shrunk away. Peter Pettigrew slunk away to a corner and began murmuring something to himself that sounded suspiciously like 'sorry' over and over again, his watery blue eyes locked on his feet. Sirius, nicknamed Padfoot, smirked and let out a bark-like laugh as he watched Peter creeping sadly away from him, seeming satisfied with his work. Another boy with prematurely graying brown hair shook his head at their antics and returned to the book he was reading, trying to ignore them. A hand quickly shot out from seemingly no where and slapped the chuckling teenager over the side of his head, causing Sirius to yip and hold a hand to his ear.

"What was that for?!" The attacked boy yelled, glaring at the one who had hit him. A boy with unruly raven-colored hair was grinning as Sirius nursed his ear, looking very nonchalant and bored while the hand he had used to slap his friend rested behind his head.

"Leave Wormtail alone- he was only trying to help." He said with a shrug, glancing over to the mumbling and sniffing Peter- or Wormtail- who was standing off to one side, the sound of his constant 'sorry, sorry, sorry' floating through the air. Padfoot looked crossly at the black-haired boy, who was named James Potter, and pointed to the cowering Peter.

"He always _trying_ to help- but he's _not_!" Sirius shouted, making the smaller boy he was yelling at before shrink down a little lower and let out a small sob. James rolled his eyes at the actions of his two friends- Sirius picking on Peter again, and Peter taking every single thing he said personally and seriously. The wild-haired boy playfully shoved Sirius out of the way, giving him a look that plainly said 'You did it again' as he walked over to where Peter was cringing. He placed a comforting hand around the smaller boy's shoulders, pushing his own glasses that had slid down his nose back to their original place with a finger.

"Padfoot didn't mean it-" James quickly shot a look over to Sirius, who gave him a little indifferent shrug of his shoulders in reply.

"-He was just… um… _kidding_." The boy said after a short pause, since he had been trying to think up some sort of excuse that would please Peter. And so it did, since the fair-haired boy was extremely gullible. In reality Sirius had not been kidding- everything he said to the poor boy had been true. But James was successful in masking all of it as sarcasm and jokes, just to keep Wormtail from having a nervous breakdown.

"O-oh… okay…" The shorter boy murmured, wiping a hand underneath his eye. Good ole Peter- thank goodness he was so naïve or he probably wouldn't make it through school without having a mental collapse every day. James patted him heartily on the back, making Peter lurch forward from the force. Prongs- James's nickname- didn't seem to have noticed that he had fallen over, though, his amber eyes directed at the sky though he still was talking to Pettigrew and the other two boys.

"There's a good chap. Now, lads, what havoc shall we wreak today?" He grinned and glanced back to Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, the brown-and-grey haired teenager, with a devious look. Sirius grinned, and Remus even glanced up from his book to give a little smile. Peter looked as little unsure, but smiled anyways. Lupin slowly closed his book and set it down on the grass beside him, looking to the black-haired boy who had voiced the recent question.

"Well, full moon isn't for a week…" he noted, looking to the sky. James nodded in agreement, and Sirius scowled in disappointment. Peter looked a little relieved.

"Yeah, I'm bored. Is Snevillus around anywhere?" Sirius questioned, smirking as he glanced around through the black hair that fell so handsomely in front of his eyes. Peter small eyes darted around the area, the sinister grin of a sports fan waiting for a game to begin finding its way on his pudgy face. James lifted his head up to look, a lopsided smile on his face. But Remus pretended to be busy with the book at his side, purposely covering up the small 'Prefect' badge he had pinned to his school robes. Sadly there was no one else around, which made Padfoot frown and moodily lean against a tree, his shoulders hunched defensively and arms crossed. The grin disappeared from James's face, and Peter let out a little sound of disappointment. It was Remus this time that looked relieved.

"Well, what should we do?" Sirius complained, still frowning at the empty land before him, his eyes still glaring straight ahead. Peter looked down and James shrugged, while Remus simply ignored him.

"We could release rats in the girl's dormitory!" The long-haired boy offered, the scowl slowly disappearing from his face as he looked hopefully to his friends. Potter grinned, but Pettigrew and Lupin had different thoughts.

"I'm offended. Release _rats_?" Peter protested, since his animagus form was a rat itself. Sirius and James sniggered beneath their breath as Peter pouted. Lupin, who had opened up his book and had begun reading, offered his criticism without even looking up.

"First, how are going to get hold of these rodents- without using Peter as one, that is. And second, how would we even get up to the girl's dormitories? You know that the stairs don't allow boys up."

"They _don't_?" Peter said with a wondered voice, since he himself had never tried to actually get up to the Gryffindor girl's room. Sirius and James, on the other hand, let expressions of remembered pain flash across their faces as they looked to each other, showing that they had tried and obviously something bad had happened. The boy who had last spoken looked a little curious and confused, but neither James nor Sirius looked as if they wanted to talk about it. After sneaking each other a quick glance, Prongs and Padfoot both turned their backs to Wormtail and Moony and began to whisper loudly, discussing their own version of the incident of the Girl's Dormitory and obviously hoping that the most gullible of the group was listening.

"Oh, it was _terrible_. When those_ knives_ swung down on us-"

"Yeah, I almost lost an eye!"  
"Ha, I almost lost an _arm_!" Sirius' bark-like laughter erupted as both chattering boys turned around to look to their eavesdropping friend. Lupin was chiding them quietly with a few disapproving grunts. Peter, one the other hand, stared at the pair with wide eyes and his face the picture of pure terror, his hand clutching his arm as if he had been imagining himself loosing it instead of his long-haired companion. James smirked a little and swaggered over to their obviously frightened friend and once again swung his arm around his shoulders, talking as his free hand rumpled his already disorderly jet-black hair.

"We were _kidding_, Wormtail." James announced; making Peter's once tense shoulders and fidgeting fingers relax a little. Sirius muttered something to himself about 'ruining his fun again'. With a playful smirk, Potter pulled his friend a little closer and whispered a comment in his ear that would probably please Black.

"Well, maybe he'll want to test out if we were lying or not." He gestured towards Peter with a flick of his finger, and, as he had suspected, Sirius grinned.

"We can only hope." He muttered through a smirk, pulling away from James with another dog-like chortle. Remus had obviously heard the conversation exchanged between the two, rolling his eyes and sticking his nose even farther into his book. There was a few moments silence between the four students, each shifting their weight from foot to foot as if trying to think of something to say. Finally, Sirius's exasperated sigh broke the silence.

"So, what _are_ we going to do?"

"Well… er, I've got some studying to do in the… library. Yes, right, the library. Well, it was nice talking with you chaps- really must be off- bye bye!" And James ran off after sputtering out his very unconvincing excuse for leaving. The three remaining boys watched as their friend didn't go to the castle, but headed towards the other side of the lake where a girl with long red hair was sitting alone. Sirius rolled his eyes, Peter frowned, and Remus smirked slightly as he once again buried his nose into his book. Mr. Black watched through narrowed eyes his friend sit next to the girl, glaring across the lake at the back of his head. He murmured something beneath his breath, but the undertone could be heard clearly the two others.

"Figures- prancing off with Evans. Why doesn't he just give up already?" Lupin gave a small nod of agreement, but Peter looked either indifferent or simply tuned out again. A satisfied grin crept across the teenager's face as he watched the two figures across the lake converse, and it was obvious it wasn't going well. Loud voices of shouting, though the words muddled from the distance, promised that the two were in a fight. Sirius watched with a happy grin as the red-haired girl, whom he had called Evans, slapped James across the face. The slapped boy finally seemed to give up, since the figure slumped away, one hand held to his cheek while the other was fishing around in his robe pocket, probably looking for his wand out of habit. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh at the sight, though it was probably good that Prongs couldn't hear him from over the expanse of the lake. He looked triumphantly back to his two friends.

"See- she doesn't like him, and he knows it. But he just keeps trying- oh, look, _now _he goes to the library. I say we join his 'study group', eh?" The long-haired boy smirked and galloped off towards the library, Remus reluctantly following and Peter hurriedly sprinting after them both.


	2. Library Troubles

"James! Why, fancy seeing you here!" A sarcastically sweet tone, though rough in nature, rang through the library. Sirius Black had entered through the doorway, Remus and Peter a few steps behind him. The three boys had headed straight for the group of tables that were clustered all the way in the back of the humongous Hogwarts library, Sirius knowing that he would fine James there. As they had thought, there was their friend; huddled behind a few rather large stacks of books to that only a tuft of messy jet-black hair could be seen over them. Sirius pushed aside two large towers to reveal James, who had a broad book held purposely up in front of his face. With a swift movement Sirius snatched it out of his hands, looking over the title and reading it aloud as if interested.

"Hm, _The Complete and Unedited Version of the Discovery and Uses of the Mushroom_. Sounds fascinating. And you were reading it upside-down, too? Must be even more interesting that way." The boy announced with a smirk, tossing the book aside and accidentally hitting Peter with it. Sirius didn't even seem to notice Peter get clobbered with the book and fall over, or observe Remus rushing over to attend his hurt friend. Black was fixed on Potter, frowning as he leaned towards his friend.

"Just _leave the girl alone_. She hates your bloody guts!"

"No she doesn't. She's been nicer lately." James stubbornly crossed his arms and replied in a light tone, trying to defend himself. At this statement Sirius couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Oh, so I suppose jinxing your ears onto the Giant Squid was being nicer." He said sarcastically, this statement only making James even more stubborn.

"She _did not_ jinx my ears onto the Giant Squid. She jinxed _your_ ears onto it."

"So jinxing your _best friend's_ ears onto the Giant Squid is nicer?!"

"Well, no, but-"  
"HA! You proved my point!" Black yelled, standing up from his squatting position so quickly that he bumped the table and made a few books topple to the floor, which promptly fell on the unlucky Peter again, who had been sitting beneath them. Once again, Sirius seem didn't notice. He was too busy leering at Potter and looking very triumphant. James, for a moment, seemed to not have anything to say in return. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, like a gaping fish, his face growing red in frustration. Sirius grinned broader. Finally, James just exploded into a yell that made several books rattle angrily in their cases, one even vibrating so hard it fell of the shelf and lay open on the ground, screaming. James' voice reached over it, though.

"_I DON'T CARE!_ So she hates me- so what?! I'll get her to like me! Just- just, arg! Just leave me and my problems _alone_! I'll choose who I like- NOT YOU!" And with that he stormed out of the library, sweeping angrily past the librarian, who had heard the noise coming from the back and had come to investigate. She swooped in like a vulture, glaring at the three boys that now remained huddled around the back table. Peter's eyes were wide with fright, Remus was glaring disapprovingly over at Sirius, and Sirius was leaning up against the table, trying to look detached and distracted- but anger was still evident on his rugged features. The librarian, Madame Archive, glowered at each of the boys, Pettigrew quailing beneath her fierce glare. She was a stooped woman with high, hunched shoulders and fierce, dark eyes, with a long, beak-like nose. Her hair was always in a tight bun, with robes that billowed out like wings. Sirius and James fondly referred to her as 'The Vulture', a nickname Remus strongly disapproved of. Madam Archive grabbed the still screaming book and snapped it shut, glaring at Sirius over its edges. She spoke in a creaking, though crisp voice, though it sounded much like a squawk. She tended to draw out her vowels, adding to the bird-like sound.

"Boys, hrmmm? What are you doooooing being so loooud in my librareeeee, erraaa?" Sirius quickly put on the most innocent and sweet tone he could muster.

"Why, Madame Archive! What_ever _are you doing all the way back here?" But the Hogwarts librarian wasn't about to give in to his little act. Her eyes narrowed at him, staring over her beak-like nose.

"You are being _looooud_, Black! Pettigrew, get up from the floooor! Lupin, I would have expected mooooore from yooooou! What, praaaay teeeeell, is your reason for SCREEEEAMING?!" Of course, Madame Archive didn't know that it was James that had been the one yelling, but since Prongs was long gone, Sirius couldn't blame in on him. So who was the next best person to blame something on? He looked sneakily down at Peter, who had quickly scrambled up from the floor stand at an attention-like stance in front of the librarian.

"Well, Peter here was-"

"_SIRIUS!_" Remus hissed, glaring at his friend, who had been trying to pin the blame on poor Peter. Sirius sighed and rolled his eyes, muttering an 'all right...' to Lupin, who afterwards looked satisfied and gave him a little encouraging nod. Sirius stared defiantly at him for a moment, and finally spoke in a monotone and expressionless voice to Madam Archive, sounding as if he had learned whatever he was saying by heart.

"_I _knocked a stack of books on Peter. Accidentally." He quickly added the last part after seeing the librarian's eyebrows shoot so far up her forehead that they almost disappeared into her hair. The librarian still seemed extremely aggravated with Sirius's actions, but accepted that as the cause of all the yelling. She turned to Peter and frowned, narrowing her eyes at the boy.

"Then yoooou must scream _quieeeeteeeeer_ mmmkaaay?" The Vulture questioned, her head cocking at a somewhat awkward angle that reminded Peter strongly of a bird. She hunched her shoulders to readjust her robe collar, turned on her heel and trotted back towards the front, her elbows flapping at her sides like some sort of chicken. Once she was safely out of sight, Sirius erupted into his loud, bark-like laughter. He turned towards Peter and mimicked the woman's drawn-out voice, flapping his arms like wings and squawking at sporadic times.

"WOOOOORMTAIL, my little friiiiiend, _caaaw! _ Dooooon't screeeeam too loud when master _BACKAW! _Black drops BOOOOOKS on yooooou!" Afterwards he collapsed onto the library floor in a heap of giggles, with Peter laughing slightly behind him, and Remus, though looking very disapprovingly at his imitation of the professor, was trying to mask a smile of amusement. Once his laughter died down, Padfoot picked himself back up from the ground and dusted himself off, glancing over his shoulder at the two remaining Marauders. He smirked and turned towards the entrance, talking to them even though he wasn't looking at them.

"I think we've got to go on a little stag hunt…"


	3. Hallway Troubles

"Hey, Evans. How ar-"

"Don't even try that with me, Potter." Lily Evans snapped, cutting off James as he tried to strike up a friendly conversation. She turned on her heel and continued walking down the corridor, nose in the air and long, red hair fanning out behind her. James stood there for a moment, blinking, but then quickly rushed to catch up with her. He turned around skillfully as he walked, making it so that he was standing directly in front of Lily, but walking backwards at the same pace that Lily was walking forwards.

"I didn't mean to call you a git-" But Evans wasn't listening to his feeble attempt at an apology. She stopped walking and turned around, trotting briskly in the opposite direction. James followed her, now just behind her, talking to her even though she acted as if he wasn't even there.

"I'm really sorry- and I'm sorry for hexing you last week- and before that- but I didn't mean to offend you... it's your fault, anyways, you made fun of Sirius-"

"I only said that about him because he transfigured poor Severus's pants into a horde of frogs!"

"Well, Snivellus was asking for it-"

"And how was he doing that?"

"He was acting like a total git in Potions!"

"Why, because he got the mixture right before you had a chance to wreck it?!"

"Yeah!"

"I can't believe you!" Lily huffed; her already brisk pace quickening even more. James matched it. Lily glared at him and turned around, brushing coldly past him as she went in the direction she was going in the first place. James followed. Lily let out a little noise of frustration, looking up at the sky as if wishing that somehow something was going to come down and help her get away from the boy that was stalking her. Finally she stopped dead in her tracks, whipped around and quickly pointed her wand at Potter, glaring.

"If you don't stop following me, I'll- I'll hex you!"

James smirked, not looking at all threatened by the wand that was being pointed at him. He simply pushed the wand out of the way and spoke to the girl in a tone that sounded like he was talking to someone at least three years younger then him.

"Now now, Evans. I don't think you even know how to hex someone. Even if you did, you wouldn't. It's breaking the rules- no magic in the corridors." Lily raised the wand back to its original position, looking very fierce.

"I've done it before- did Sirius get his ears back alright? And I'll do it to you- I will, Potter! I'll hex you!"

"Not if I do first." The boy said very coolly, raising his own wand and spinning it around in his fingers like a baton. He moved his wand and simply pushed Lily's down, away from where it had been pointing at his face. Now it was pointing at his feet. Lily smirked.

"_Pedis Congelo_!" She shouted, and small blue light shot from the tip of her wand, wrapping around James's feet. It stayed there for a moment, and then disappeared. Looking content, the girl slipped her wand from underneath James's and placed it back in the front pocket of her robes. She then turned and began walking away. James frowned, then grinned and yelled after her.

"See?! I told you that you couldn't hex me- that was a charm! And you didn't even do it right- nothing happe- oh..." He paused in his shouting, since something much more important had caught his attention. When he lifted his foot to storm after Lily, he found that his foot wouldn't move. Worried, Prongs tried the other one. There was the same result. It seemed that Lily had actually done something with her charm- it was something that made his feet stuck to the floor, as if frozen there. A small smile came across James's face, though, and he mumbled something to himself as he watched Lily's long red hair whip out of view beyond the next bend.

"_Pedis Congelo_... I'll have to remember that one."

* * *

"J-James!" A stuttering voice could be heard calling across the corridors, a small, short figure sprinting down it. James, who had seemed to have gotten his feet unstuck and was brooding angrily against the wall, turned his head, though found himself quickly rolling his eyes and looking up at the sky. But as the person came even closer, Potter put on a bright and friendly grin, though a more observant person could tell it wasn't sincere. Peter Pettigew, though, wasn't that observant. The smaller boy spoke with a broad smile, looking eagerly up at his friend. James looked down at him, not as enthusiastic about the visit. James looked at him expectantly, and Peter, for a moment looking confused, finally perked up into realization. 

"Oh, right, what I was saying- er, well, me'n Padfoot and Moony were all looking for you and I was just wondering what happened with Lily and- are those your shoes on the floor?" The student, while talking in an incredibly fast and breathless voice without pausing to even take a breath, paused when he noticed that James was in fact in only socks, his shoes sitting neatly on the ground. A sly grin came across the taller boy's face as the shoes were pointed out.

"Lily's fault." He said simply, shrugging. Peter's eyes widened, since he was utterly confused on why Lily would have anything to do with James having his shoes off. James just continued to grin. Peter looked from his friend's smirking face to the shoes, then back again a few times. Finally, his curiosity overcame him. He wandered over to where the shoes were and attempted to pick them up from the ground, though was extremely hesitant, as if thinking that the shoes themselves might try to bite him. But when Peter pulled, they wouldn't move. So Pettigrew tried again- once again, they remained stuck. His small, watery eyes goggled and he stared up at his friend, jaw slightly agape as he gasped out the question James had been hoping he would ask.

"What _happened_?" This was what Potter had been hoping for. With a gigantic smirk, he launched into the entire story of what had happened with Lily and him, though tweaking a few parts so it sounded as if _he_ had been the one in control, instead of Lily being the one triumphant in the end.

"…So when I had my back turned, she shoots this charm at me that stick my shoes to the ground. Bad form- shooting from behind- but I didn't do anything to her, since I'm such a gentleman and all. And… that was it. All I had to do was take my shoes off, anyways, but I can't pry 'em up." He gave a light shrug. "Filth," (he was referring to Argus Filch, the caretaker, to whom he had given that fitting nickname) "can try and scrape them off later."

"_Wow_." Peter said, clapping appreciatively at the slightly false story that James had just told him. He looked down at the stuck shoes again, prodding them with the toe of his shoe as if thinking they might scoot a little. But they remained cemented. "What if Filth finds out they're your shoes? He might try to string you up by your thumbs or something for 'damaging property'."

"He's not allowed. Those are just rumors." James laughed, thinking that Peter was only joking. The positively terrified look on Pettigrew's face told him that he was convinced otherwise. A brow rose behind James's glasses, and he peered a little closer at the now a little paler boy.

"…Did Filth threaten you with hanging you by yours thumbs?" Peter nodded. Potter discreetly rolled his eyes, placed an arm around Peter, and began steering him away from the shoes and up towards the Gryffindor Common Room without saying another word.

That boy was just way too gullible.


	4. Not Too Troubled

"Where is he?" Sirius Black moodily leaned against the wall of the Gryffindor Common Room, shaking his hair from his eyes as he peered around for his missing companion. Remus, to whom he had been talking to, merely shrugged and continued reading his book. Padfoot scowled at his friend, glaring disapprovingly at the book he had been reading for the past hour.

"You are _not_ helping."

"'Course I'm not." Remus murmured, clearly oblivious to whatever Sirius was saying and much too engrossed in his book. Sirius grunted and turned away from him, still looking over his shoulder at the entrance to the Common Room. After staring at the unmoving portrait for a while longer, Sirius seemed to have made up his mind about something, voicing a comment.

"We need to set up mouse traps."

"What? Those muggle rat-catching contraptions? Peter only got lost, there's no need to try and-" Remus objected, but Sirius quickly corrected him.

"-No, for James. We can try and 'snap' him out of it, ha ha…"

"That was a pathetic joke- and I don't think he'll fit in a mouse trap."

"His toes will." Padfoot said with a rather dark tone, a smirk quickly flashing across his rugged features. A twitch of a grin appeared on the corners of Moony's mouth, but he managed to keep a straight face. Just as he opened his mouth to reply, the faint sounds of someone talking on the other end were heard, a feminine voice- though low- and a normal teenage voice. Sirius hastily flung himself forward against the portrait, pressing his ear against it to try and hear what was happening on the other side. Remus shook his head at his friend's actions, smiling to himself as his nose was once again buried in his book. Sirius, on the other hand, was busy trying to piece together the conversation going on.

"…Just let me SIIIING for YOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOO!" The female voice said, transcending from a normal speaking tone to an exaggerated operatic sing-song voice. A male's voice came next, sounded exasperated.

"Just let me in- Frogspawn, frogspawn, frogspawn- how many times do I have to say it?"

"No SIIII-HIIII-HIIIIIEEEIIIINGUHing for you?" The female voice burst out into song on the word 'singing', and Sirius had to draw back and cover his ears for a moment because of the extremely high- and off- pitch. The boy's voice continued, sounding even angrier

"_No_, just _let me in_!"

"Oh, fine, just wait a tick." The female voice snapped, sounding huffy and disappointed. Sirius, too involved in trying to figure out who the boy's voice belonged to, remembered too late that the woman's voice belonged to the portrait, which meant she would be opening in a moment. Indeed she did- the painting swung inwards, pushing Padfoot (who was already pressed up against its back, listening) quickly into the opposing wall. The eavesdropping boy let out a dog-like yelp, smashed momentarily in between the painting's back and the castle wall. When the portrait swung easily back into place, Sirius groaned, closed his eyes, and sunk down onto the ground, feeling very flattened. From beyond he could hear Remus's cheery voice, finally withdrawing from his book and speaking to whoever has just entered.

"Wotcher, Prongs!" Sirius perked up like a dog who had heard its name called. His eyes snapped open and he stared ahead, seeing Remus greeting James. Sirius's eyes narrowed and he rose from the ground, prepared to storm forward and finally give James a piece of his mind. But put his foot forward to charge, the portrait swung open and once again sandwiched him against the wall. When the painting returned to its normal place, Sirius just fell forward on his face, groaning even louder. From where he was staring at the deep red carpet, his face squashed into it, he heard Remus's happy voice again.

"Oh, and hiya, Wormtail! Where have you two been?"

"Well, Wormtail got lost, we know that." Sirius quickly piped up, wrenching his head from the floor. He quickly stood up and seemed to be very surprised at Remus's scowling face, and an extremely annoyed look from a rather ruffled Peter. James looked happy about something or other. Sirius, grinning inwardly, leaned against the wall and looked to Peter and Remus with a look of mock confusion.

"Why're you all looking at me like that?"

"_You_ lost _Peter_. He didn't get lost." Moony protested, frowning as Sirius grinned even broader. Peter nodded in agreement, making Sirius have to work very had to keep his face at least semi-straight.

"Oh, was I walking too fast for him?"

"You were _sprinting_ down the halls and turning corners as fast as possible. The only was I could keep up was by, well, _smelling_ you."

"I was so bloody _brilliant_!" Sirius cut in, punching the air with his fist and looking pleased. "I was sprinting and ducking and you two were lagging like you had sticksap on the bottom of your shoes, I could have totally gotten you lost if- wait, you _smelled me!_"

"Just another perk of my, ah, 'condition', Padfoot." Remus said, frowning.

"And you smell like week-old dungbombs." James smoothly cut in, grinning as he ruffled his hair with his free hand.

"Oh, so _now_ you come back to us- after _total defeat_." Sirius snapped, not at all in the mood to joke now that he really noticed James was there. James looked slightly alarmed, looking wildly from Sirius and shooting a suspicious glance at Peter.

"How do you know about that!"

"We saw you across the lake." Remus said simply, calmly watching the two as they snapped at each other. James, hearing Remus give his comment, suddenly looked relieved. He nervously brushed his hand through his hair, making it even more untidy.

"Oh, _that_. I thought- never mind. So, you saw what happened across the-"

"-Never mind! Something _else_ happened? Don't tell me you went chasing after her even when you stormed out of the library! We went looking for you-"

"-But Sirius got distracted; thinking it was much more fun to get Peter and I lost-"

"-And you made me wander around the castle all by myself-"

"-But none of that matters!" Black snarled, glowering at Lupin and Pettigrew. "What matters is there's something that Prongs isn't telling us!"

Sirius and Remus looked expectantly at James, while Peter attempted to look suddenly interested in his shoelaces. Sirius gave Peter a scrutinizing look before returning his glare at James.

"So, what are you 'never minding' about? Did something happen with Lily? Did something happen with Peter? Something happened, and I'm going to find out even if you don't tell me." After stating this, he gave Peter a rather significant look, smirking. Peter, who had looked up from his shoelaces, took this as something to take warning from and looked rather apprehensive. James; knowing that Peter would cave in when Sirius interrogated him about what happened, decided to just give up and tell.

"Fine- I met Evans on the way from the library."

"HA! I _knew _it." Black let out a bark of laughter, punching the air with his fist as a look of triumph quickly passed over his rugged features.

"What happened to your shoes?" The highly-observant Remus questioned, staring at James's socked feet. Sirius shot an angry look towards his interrupting friend, and then looked to James, nodding for him to go on. James rolled his eyes at Sirius's eagerness, but continued.

"We… talked. And… she didn't seem too happy. She, er, put a charm on my shoes and made them stick to the floor." He looked towards Remus, a lopsided grin coming across his face. "That answers the shoe question."

"'_She didn't seem too happy._' Why?" Sirius nosily questioned, frowning.

"Well… I dunno; she doesn't like how we treat Snevillus."

"What, she's sticking up for that pointy-faced git?" Sirius growled, obviously not very fond of Severus. Peter sniggered and James nodded in reply. Sirius continued, looking surly. "Figures. Who does she think she is, anyways- savior of the Slytherins?"

"Yup." James answered, grinning. Peter sniggered even louder and Sirius couldn't repress his own smile. Remus rolled his eyes. Suddenly, Sirius looked… serious (no pun intended) again.

"So, this means your going to go soft on us to impress her?"

"What!" James sputtered, laughing. "Sure, I like her, but not _that _much." Sirius looked slightly relieved. "If we stopped, who wouwd poor Sevvy-wevvy have to pway wif?" James spoke in a feigned baby voice, clasping his hands together underneath his chin in mock concern. Sirius laughed in his dog-like way, and Peter's sniggering was reaching the volume of irritatingly earsplitting. After a few moments of the three animagi laughing loudly together (the werewolf had held his book up to his face to mask his chortling), they subsided. James and Sirius grinned at each other while Peter continued to titter shrilly. Finally, Sirius turned around to the smaller boy, looking annoyed.

"Are you _trying _to break every glass in the castle?"

Pettigrew stopped abruptly, turning a bit red. The four boys glanced at each other for a brief moment, and silently headed up to the dormitory- it was late, anyways.


End file.
